Unsolicited Approval
by InkDragons
Summary: "G-gaara?" Lee whimpered, on the edge of unconsciousness. "Not Gaara." Shukaku smiled and reached out for Lee. Gaara x Lee. Basically, Shukaku is let loose in Konoha and decides he really is better at defense than offense.


**disclaimer:** I sadly own nothing.

 **AN:** Not quite sure how I feel about this honestly. It's an expanded version of a very short drabble, the result of a plot bunny that wouldn't leave my head. People are probably a little OOC in this. Oh well. Please review and let me know how I did.

 **Unsolicited Approval**

From inside his cage, Shukaku could hear everything Gaara heard, could see everything he saw. Of course, he had to be paying attention.

Shukaku tended to tune out when his host was doing Kazekage work, especially the kind that involved filling out forms in triplicate. Meetings weren't much better. It was all so boring, even more since Shukaku had given up hope he would ever be let out.

So he wasn't really paying attention. Gaara was in Konoha on official business, which meant meetings and paperwork. However, he snapped to attention when he felt the hold on him loosening. Gaara was falling asleep.

"There's no way," Shukaku thought. "Meetings are boring, but they're not that bad." Yet Gaara was out cold, blocking any information he could get from the situation. Damn.

Although Gaara was unconscious, Shukaku could still get emotions off of him. Fear and panic could be attributed to Gaara realizing he was about to unleash a monster. But there was rage, too, and a need to protect.

Shukaku broke free with a roar, albeit a confused one. Sand automatically gathered around him, forming the body of the Tanuki, protecting the body of his host. Golden eyes immediately scanned the surroundings. He expected a meeting room filled with terrified elders and a pissed off Hokage. He got a training ground filled with enemies.

What was that symbol on their forehead protectors? It wasn't Suna or Konoha, Shukaku knew that much. Oh, well. They had a line through them. That meant missing nin, criminals. They were fair game, right? Not even that bleeding heart Naruto could complain if he slaughtered these guys.

But why had Gaara fallen asleep in the middle of an attack? It didn't make any sense. The answer came in the form of a small cannister at his feet, leaking vile green billowing clouds. Knockout gas maybe?

Shukaku was pulled from his thoughts by a kunai heading towards his face. Sand flew up to block it before rushing towards the attacker. The sand wrapped around the man's waist and legs, leaving his upper body exposed, but didn't crush him. Realizing what was about to happen, the missing nin screamed and clawed frantically at the sand to no avail. A smarter move would have been a teleportation jutsu, but people in the clutches of a tailed beast rarely thought things through. Shukaku felt a hint of disappointment that he didn't put up a better fight, because to be perfectly killing people who didn't fight back got boring after a while. He did, however,make a lot of noise, pleas for mercy mixing with screams of pain as the sand slowly tightened. That was almost as good. The sand continued squeezing until it had broken every bone in his lower body, then kept going until the man was in two separate pieces, each gushing blood.

Turning towards the remaining attackers, Shukaku's eyes widened when a flurry of shuriken flew over his head. Sure, people weren't usually on their best game when facing Shukaku, but that was ridiculous.

Turning, he saw Lee swaying on his feet, his face as green as his suit, a cannister at his feet. It was a testament to his strength that he was still standing. But the wave of shuriken was headed right toward him.

A strangled scream filled the air as a wall of sand rose up, taking the hit. An instant later, Lee was surrounded in a ball of sand, leaving just enough room for him to crouch, hopefully blocking out any more poison. That done, Shukaku turned to the remaining missing nin.

"How DARE you?!" he howled. He relished the look of panic on their faces before the ensuing blood bath.

Inside the sand sphere, Lee was weakly beating on the sandy walls of his prison. "Gaara! Gaara! Listen to me! Snap out of it!" He was getting weaker and weaker, until his voice could barely be heard, but he had to keep trying. Gaara wouldn't be able to live with the guilt if he attacked the Leaf village, and Lee would never be able to live with himself if he didn't try to help his friend. He had to keep trying, he had to find a way to reach Gaara.

Lee could hear the screams of pain and agony, nearly drowned out by angry roars. The wet sound of tearing flesh reached his ears and he could only hope it was the missing nin he was mercilessly tearing apart. He slammed against the walls with renewed energy, not even making a dent. After a while, Lee slumped to the ground, desperately trying to cling to consciousness.

Surrounded by bodies and soaked in blood, Shukaku let his sand body drop away as the sand sphere around Lee crumbled. In this form, he looked like Gaara, just with yellow eyes, fangs, and an embarrassing amount of drool. He stalked towards the collapsed Lee, sand swirling around him. Miraculously, Lee was awake enough to whimper out. "G-gaara?" Shukaku smiled.

"Not Gaara," he said, reaching out for Lee.

Gaara's head was pounding, and his whole body felt like it had been put through the wringer. Opening his eyes, he felt a jolt of panic at his unfamiliar surroundings. He tried to sit up, only to find he was chakra cuffed to the rails of the bed. Forcing himself to calm down, he looked around. It seemed like he was in a private hospital room. A few machines surrounded him, with blank screens. Apparently Gaara wasn't actually hooked into any of them. He tugged at the cuffs again, but they held firm. Looks like he was stuck there until someone found him. But that didn't mean he couldn't speed along the process. There was a call nurse button within his reach and he pressed it.

The result was almost instantaneous. The door opened, letting in Tsunade and Sakura.

"What happened?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer. He had been asleep, which meant Shukaku had been free. Evidently they had managed to restrain him, but the damage could still have been enormous. The last time a tailed beast had been let loose on a village, the death count was staggering. If Shukaku was free, he could have done anything. The only thing keeping Gaara from clutching his heart at the thought of what he could have done was the chakra cuffs.

"We're trying to figure that out," Tsunade responded. "From what we can get out of Shukaku and Lee, there was an attack."

Tsunade got the impression that the Kazekage's eyebrows would have met his hairline if he had any to speak of when he next spoke.

"Shukaku? You spoke to him?"

Tsunade nodded, smiling slightly. "Talkative little booger."

Gaara had to take a second to process the fact Tsunade had just called Shukaku a 'talkative little booger.' Although he'd never argue the point, seeing as Shukaku kept up a running commentary of almost everything going on in his life for as long as he could remember. It was only recently that he had started to zone out and quiet down. But still, as far as he knew, Gaara was the only one to ever have conversations with the one tails. No one else could even hear him unless Gaara relinquished control, and when that happened, Shukaku was usually too busy bathing in blood to really talk.

"Now, could you tell us what you remember happening?" Tsunade asked gently.

"When the meeting was over, Lee and I went to train. We were sparring for a while, and then…. I'm sorry. I don't remember anything else," Gaara said, throat tight. He was used to having gaps in his memory; the more control Shukaku had, the less likely Gaara was to remember anything after. But this was different. This time the gap occurred with Lee in easy reach.

"Where's Lee?" Although he kept his expression blank, Gaara couldn't keep his voice from trembling. He left off the rest of his questions, for fear that his voice would break further.

Sakura reached out a hand intending to comfort him, before pulling back at the last second. "Lee's fine. I promise. Shukaku didn't hurt him."

"May I see him?" Gaara asked quietly, wanting to assure himself he hadn't killed one of his most precious people.

Tsunade shook her head. "He's stable, but he's unconscious at the moment. Its really best if we leave him be for now."

Gaara nodded, settling back against the pillows propped up behind his back. His expression clearly said he was ready for an explanation.

"From what we can tell, you were attacked by missing nin. They used a gas to render you and Lee unconscious. I believe they expected Shukaku to attack Konoha once he was freed. No doubt it was an attempt to stir up trouble between the villages. If Shukaku had attacked, not only would we have a rogue beast on our hands, but a mountain of paperwork and one hell of a diplomatic incident."

"Did that not happen?" Gaara asked, catching onto how Tsunade had chosen to phrase things.

"Not exactly. Shukaku took control, yes, but he only attacked the missing nin. Once they were annihilated, he grabbed Lee and tore out of there, running to the hospital."

Gaara stared at her, clearly questioning her sanity at this point. Did she honestly expect him to believe this?

"The nurses were terrified, screaming that the Kazekage had lost it. I came out of my office to find you covered in blood and drool, yellow eyes glowing, cradling an unconscious Lee. Shukaku was yelling for Sakura."

"Sakura?"

The pink haired medic in question stepped forward. "Apparently he remembered Kankuro complaining that I was able to neutralize all of his poisons. Shukaku was worried the gas might have been a poison as well as a sedative."

"His insistence on Sakura was a little offensive, honestly," Tsunade said, shaking her head.

Sakura laughed at that. "Just take it as a compliment to your teaching skills."

The two bickered a little, before eventually releasing Gaara from the chakra cuffs and leaving the room, giving him some time to process this new turn of events.

Gaara took a deep breath before turning to his ever present companion.

"Shukaku?" he asked, voice quiet.

"What, kid?" the voice in his head responded. As usual, he sounded a little grumpy, but there was a hint of wariness Gaara wasn't used to hearing.

"You got out." Sometimes the direct approach worked best when dealing with the half insane tanuki.

"Yeah, what of it?" Shukaku growled.

"You didn't attack," Gaara pointed out.

"The hell I didn't! The sand in your gourd will be soaked with blood for weeks after what I did to them!" At this point, Shukaku was angry, but his tone was almost defensive.

"You know what I mean. You didn't attack Konoha… You protected Lee. Why?"

Silence for a moment, then "I like Lee."

Gaara sat in stunned silence, and Shukaku quickly continued. "Not in that way. The eyebrows are just way too much, but apparently that's your thing." His voice had taken on a teasing tone, as if trying to distract Gaara from the question.

"You like Lee?"

"Yes. He's entertaining, and he's brave as hell to still be with us." Gaara tensed at the use of that word, still wishing that there wasn't an us. Shukaku continued, as if oblivious, although he had to know. "He's the most loyal person I've ever heard of… and he makes you happy."

"Since when do you care if I'm happy?!" Gaara practically yelled, startling a few nurses in the hallway.

Shukaku hesitated. When had that happened? He supposed it must have started sometime after Gaara learned greater control, and in general behaved like a human being. He had reached out to other people, forcing Shukaku to feel all of these new, pleasant emotions. At some point he had decided if he wasn't going to be released any time soon, it might be better to have a happy host.

"Since now. Now shut up and go check on him."

 **AN:** Here's the little drabble the story was based off of.

"I like him."

Although Gaara was used to the unwanted voice in his head, he was decidedly not used to the voice being this happy.

"What?" he asked carefully.

"Lee. I like him," Shukaku responded.

"You like Lee?" Gaara couldn't remember the last time Shukaku had actually voiced approval of anyone.

"Yes. He's entertaining, and he's damn brave to stay with you after everything." Shukaku paused, then continued. "He makes you happy."

"Since when do you care if I'm happy? You made my life hell!"

"I've given up hope of you ever letting me out. If I'm going to be stuck here, you might as well be happy."

"Ok then."


End file.
